Perks of Being a Wallflower Investigative Essay
Different mediums of creative outlets such as music, books, and movies, often guide people through their lives. Various texts translate meaning into any circumstance, and allow discoveries to be made in order to deepen understanding of not only oneself, but of the world around as well. In Stephen Chbosky’s, Perks of Being a Wallflower, the main protagonist Charlie, finds himself discovering a plethora of new experiences, from his own sexuality, to the use of drugs. These experiences are often guided by different pieces of literature provided by his teacher and mentor, Bill. Likewise, works of music and movies provided by his closest friends Sam and Patrick, allow Charlie to discover himself throughout
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His musical taste is not only gained from the mixtape that is given to him by his sister, but also from Sam and Patrick, who both heavily influence him. The novel mentions countless songs, with Charlie’s mixtapes being comprised of many classic melodies. The ‘Secret Santa’ mixtape is a compilation of songs including: MLK, by U2, Asleep, by The Smiths, and Smells Like Teen Spirit, by Nirvana. The mixtape also includes Landslide, by Fleetwood Mac, and it is initially referenced in the novel when Charlie, Sam and Patrick drive through the tunnel for the first time. Charlie claims that Landslide, is “a beautiful song” (pg. 42), and it assists him in the euphoric state of feeling “infinite”, but also relates to how he changes over the progression of the novel. The line: “well, I’ve been afraid of changing”, in the chorus of Landslide, enables the audience to connect the song, to capture how Charlie overcomes his vicious shyness. Charlie’s ‘changing’, or discovery of outgoingness, can be first correlated to when he approaches Patrick at the football game. He states that he himself, is normally very shy, but overcomes this because Patrick “seemed like the kind of guy you could just walk up to” (pg. 21). Therefore connecting the terror of ‘changing’ within the song, to Charlie …show more content…
He adores every book he reads, and with that, his English teacher, Bill, provides him with extra stimulus for his class. One of the extra pieces of literature assigned to Charlie, was The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D Salinger. The main protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden, has many similar traits to Charlie, as the two books parallel each other. Both protagonists are both classified as wallflowers, and throughout their respective novels, they go through a self-discovery process. Within both books, there is also a predominant discovery of love, which is made through Charlie and Holden’s new profound self-discovery. In Perks, Charlie realises the reality of relationships, and how difficult they can be. Furthermore, when it comes to relationships, Charlie lacks experience, additionally his love for Sam is overwhelming, and he often became confused surrounding the topic. “I love Sam. It’s not a movie kind of love either. I just look at her sometimes, and I think she’s the prettiest and nicest person in the world” (pg. 51). Being socially inept at times, Charlie finds it hard to comprehend his love. This is how The Catcher in the Rye, is similar to Charlie. Both protagonists are unable to connect with others, such as women, and they both assume very comparable roles. Charlie and Holden, discover the ideology of
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the story of a unique high school student named Charlie and his journey of self-discovery throughout his freshman year. Charlie’s personality changes drastically from the beginning of the book to the end of it; and this is what I want to focus on. First I am going to detail Charlie’s personality at the beginning of the book and then use Erik Erikson’s theory of Psychosocial Development, Kohlberg’s theory of Moral Development, Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development and an article about adolescent bulling to analyze them. I will then use examples from the book and film to illustrate his growth in the respected areas. Through these major theories of psychology I will show Charlie’s evolution from a wallflower to a human being.
Charlie begins to hang out with Sam and Patrick and is getting in the routine of going to football games and then going out afterwards to celebrate. Afterwhile he catches feelings for Sam and the way he expresses them further deepens our understanding of his depression. Instead of going with the flow and not telling her about the dreams he had about her, he professes his love for her in the form of sharing his dreams and telling her just how he feels. Perhaps, this isn’t all his fault because when Sam tells him that she’s too old for him, he becomes obsessed with his love for her and can’t stop thinking about how perfect she is in his eyes. The only thing this confession has done for him is make his feelings grow and send him in a downward spiral of
The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist Holden Caulfield is shown in this book to display multiple different personas. Holden has a tendency to tell lies, acts in a careless, self-destructive manner. However, Holden has also shown a personality in which he acts in a caring, empathetic demeanor, shown in scenarios such as his outlook towards the prostitute, and his refusal to allow his sister to come along with him to the cabin in the woods. Furthermore, Holden Caulfield’s attitude and problems mainly stemmed from his refusal to accept his brother’s passing, as Holden had exhibited a deep connection and love for his brother. These incidents collectively show the storyline of our troubled protagonist as he progresses
For my paper, I am diagnosing Charlie from the film, Perks of Being a Wallflower. Before I delve into Charlie’s diagnosis, I will provide some background information about his character. In the film, Charlie is a 15 year old boy who has recently started high school as a freshman. He lives with both parents, and his sister who is a couple years older than him. Charlie also has a brother who has gone away to college. In school, Charlie is seen to be good with academics, particularly in English, since he has an interest in writing. However, Charlie does not have any friends and his best friend had kill himself in the last year. Furthermore, Charlie is seen to be quite socially awkward around his peers and usually keeps to himself.
The book also focuses on Charlie’s home life. Charlie has two siblings that make him feel invisible. There’s a hidden resentment in the tone that is used by Charlie to explain his sister and brother. But by the end they have managed to form a certain bond that Charlie has always wanted.
At the beginning, Charlie is without friends and is rather alone. He is very gifted and quite an overthinker which expels him from the usual teenage social groups. This changes, however, when he meets Sam and Patrick at a football game. They expose him to all new experiences. Resulting from his new friendships, is his relationship with Mary Elizabeth, his experimentations with drugs, and new knowledge of being a person. During this time, he is increasingly happy because Charlie was finally living.
Charlie Kelmeckis is described as a “wallflower.” He is socially awkward and likes to keep to himself. He also really enjoys reading and writing. Charlie cares deeply for others, but has a lot of guilt about past events. For example, Charlie believes that the death of his Aunt Helen is his fault, because she was killed in a car accident on an errand to get Charlie a birthday gift. Charlie has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Anxiety, and Depression. His mental instability was mostly caused by being sexually abused by his Aunt Helen before the age of seven. Charlie experiences flashbacks of his Aunt over the course of the movie, but all are portrayed in a positive light.
The Catcher in the Rye, a novel by J.D. Salinger follows the life of a cynical teenage boy named Holden Caulfield. Holden is first seen as a very cynical person who does not understand the world. He often criticizes everything around him and blames it on the people around him, almost never on himself. He mostly spends his time around clubs and getting drunk with no people to comfort him. His only friends, Phoebe and Allie, both contain a specific characteristic very important to him, innocence.
Every person gets influenced by someone even major characters, in both suitable and adverse ways. Holden Caulfield is a 17-year-old boy that is the protagonist and narrator of the novel The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. Holden is influenced by many characters and tries to learn from his own experiences and from the ones of others as well. Some even change him in ways that make him grow up and change as a character. Not only that, Holden goes through many difficult hardships and through his cynicism he tries to protect himself from the agony and dissatisfaction of them. Many people influence him, especially Jane Gallagher, Allie Caulfield, and D.B. Caulfield.
Sociology is the scientific study of being behavior in human groups (Schaefer). There are very many examples of sociology in the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but I view alienation, deviance, and gender roles to be the most prominent. This movie is about the struggles of a teenage boy named Charlie’s freshman year of high school. Charlie is seen as a social outcast and he just barely makes it through the year with the help of his best friends Sam and Patrick. Throughout the movie Charlie experiences most of the basic struggles of starting high school and some. This movie is very relateable since it gives a more realistic view of high school for some people. Charlie , and the audience, learns the importance of love and friendship in growing up in today’s society.
The setting of the novel greatly breads Charlie’s life. In the suburbs, everyone knows each other better than in the city. Therefore, when one person is beaten by a mental illness, it affects everyone in some way. When someone has a mental illness people do not talk about it, it is pushed away and hidden. No one really tries to help, but once the problem goes to extremes and someone commits suicide, no one is not talking about it. So when Charlie’s best and only friend stops coming to school and they announce that he has passed away, everyone is whispering about it and trying to find what really happened. Charlie found someone who knows the truth and got the true but devastating news “Dave with the awkward glasses told us that Michael
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a novel about coming of age that is seen through the perspective of Charlie, a young ‘wallflower’ that is starting high school and experiences the troublesome teenage life filled with drugs, sexuality and love. Charlie writes this book in a series of letters to an anonymous person. Charlie is the main protagonist of the story who is apprehensive and a kind-hearted boy however he has many problems happening in his life that he doesn’t like to concern others with “I just don’t want you to worry about me, or think you’ve met me, or waste your time anymore”. I admire Charlie because he is very considerate of others and although he is shy he overcomes this fear when he tries to find friends and step out of his comfort zone” Normally I am very shy, but (Patrick) seemed like the kind of guy you could just walk up to at a football game even though you were three years younger and not popular”. In return Charlie is rewarded with his first real friend at high school. I also admire Charlie for his mature attitude towards finding new friends and moving on from the death of his friend Michael. Charlie really needed to start interacting more with people, during the story we find out that Charlie misses having a friend and that being alone can be difficult and cause negative effects “It would be very nice to have a friend again. I would like that even more than a date”. I think
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, introduces us to Holden Caulfield is one of my favorite characters because of his immaturity and confusion, or lack of understanding of his own mind. He tends to change opinion, say strong remarks, and act very childish throughout the book. Because he hasn’t grown up. He hates most of the things he comes across during the novel. His challenge is understanding the reason things are the way they have to be and why he has to act a certain why. He doesn't understand the conventions of society so he
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a coming-of-age epistolary novel written by American novelist Stephen Chbosky set in the suburbs of Pittsburgh in the 1990's (Wikipedia, 2012). It follows the life of a teenage boy named Charlie.
Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of being a Wallflower is an explicit coming of age novel that gives teenagers a sense of relation with the 16 year old protagonist, Charlie. This book was a bestseller in the year 1999. This book definitely has a more mature content and is very straight to the point, it includes drug usage from parties, sex, and violence. Although this book has explicit content, definitely do not let that distract you from the story.